KDEs' Multimedia needs

[Tim Jansen]

On Saturday 22 February 2003 19:37, Matthias Welwarsky wrote:
> A sound server. So far so well, but with what features, what would we want:
> - simultaneous access
> - network transparency (?)

Is desirable, in both directions (for thin clients, when the sound server runs 
on the X11 side, it must receive sound and for desktop sharing, when the 
sound server forwards sound to the client). This also adds the requirement 
that the sound server should be able to encode sound data for low-bandwidth 
connections, and that it supports a protocol like RTP that can handle packet 
loss and network congestions graciously.

This is what I like about MAS.

> - in short, everything you'd want your soundcard to do.

What's missing in all sound servers so far is device management. They all 
assume that people only have a single sound device, but that's not true. 
Today there are USB webcams with built-in microphones, USB headset, VoIP 
adapters that look like telephones and so on. On Windows managing them is 
relatively easy, on Linux this is hell (especially if the /dev/dsp* nodes are 
not stable, because they depend on the order the devices have been plugged 
in).

bye...